Ordinary diners who take part in our annual survey each spring review restaurants and leave their feedback, but we also ask them to score restaurants from 1-5 on food, service and ambience. Harden’s then uses an average of these scores and measures them against other establishments in the same price bracket to arrive at the ratings published in the guide and online.

Snippets from some of your feedback may end up in the overall Harden’s review, noticeably they appear in “double quotation marks”. The rest of our pithy, bite-sized restaurant summaries are compiled by analysing the survey data and extracting recurring themes, looking at whether or not a venue was nominated in any of our categories – like ‘favourite’ or ‘most overpriced’ – and, of course, looking at the ratings for food, service and ambience.

The Harden’s ratings indicate that a restaurant is:

exceptional very good good average poor

All reviews are compiled from survey comments and ratings, without any regard for our own personal opinions, except in cases where restaurants are too new to have been included in the survey. If you want the editors’ view on new restaurants in London you can find them in our Editors’ Review section.

Southampton Restaurant Guide

Harden's Guides have been compiling reviews of the best restaurants in Southampton since 1998.

Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Southampton

Hardens guides have spent 15 years compiling reviews of the best Southampton restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 23 restaurants in Southampton and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Southampton restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.

Reporters just love this stripped-back, NYC-style diner, turning out cocktails, BBQ fare and quality dirty burgers; the owners brought their hit formula to Reading in early 2017, but its this four-year-old Southampton branch that grabs the most attention.

2016 Review: A wonderful find; despite its unpromising location by a boat yard, this fine dining one-year-old is  according to its small fan club  well worth a visit on account of its relaxing interior, personable service and superior food. Great care taken over cocktails too.

For the first 20 years of this guide, this famous pizza chain with its surprisingly distinctive branches was  with tedious regularity  the surveys most mentioned group: constantly re-inventing itself to remain everyones favourite standby, especially with kids in tow. Competition is sharper nowadays however, and since its ownership changed a couple of years ago (to Hony Capital) ratings and the volume of feedback have slipped well below their historical average. Yes, it is still much-mentioned, and still as reliable as ever to armies of loyal supporters, but harsher critics are stunned by the complacency and staleness of the brand: even the ubiquitous, good value voucher deals are starting to lose their shine.